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Brendan Kennelly
| birth_place = Ballylongford, County Kerry | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, professor, translator | language = | nationality = | ethnicity = | citizenship = Irish | education = | alma_mater = Trinity College, Dublin, Leeds University | period = | genre = | subject = Oliver Cromwell, Greek mythology | movement = | notableworks = Poetry My Arse, Book of Judas, Cromwell | spouse = | partner = | children = Daughter, Doodle Kennelly http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/wise-kennellys-labours-of-love-28951339.html | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | | portaldisp = }} Timothy Brendan Kennelly (born 17 April 1936) is an Irish poet, novelist, and academic. Life Youth Kennelly was born in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, and was educated at the inter-denominational St. Ita's College, Tarbert, County Kerry, and at Trinity College, where he edited Icarus. Kennelly graduated from Trinity and wrote his Ph.D. thesis there. He also studied at Leeds University. Career Kennelly was Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Dublin for almost 40 years.Tom Brace, A Poet's Space: An Interview with Brendan Kennelly, Three Monkeys Online. Web, Feb. 2, 2014.. He retired in 2005. He is father to a daughter, Doodle (Doods) Kennelly. A prolific and fluent writer, he has more than 30 books of poetry to his credit.Brendan Kennelly, The Poetry Project. Web, Feb. 1, 2014. His long (400-page) epic poem, "The Book of Judas", published in 1991, topped the Irish best-seller list. Kennelly has edited several anthologies, including “Between Innocence and Peace: Favourite Poems of Ireland” (1993), “Ireland's Women: Writings Past and Present, with Katie Donovan and A. Norman Jeffares” (1994), and “Dublines,” with Katie Donovan (1995). He has also written 2 novels, “The Crooked Cross” (1963) and “The Florentines” (1967), and translated plays by Sophocles (Antigone) and Euripides Medea and The Trojan Women. Kennelly is an Irish language (Gaelic) speaker, and has translated Irish poems in "A Drinking Cup" (1970) and "Mary" (Dublin 1987). A selection of his collected translations was published as "Love of Ireland: Poems from the Irish” (1989). Writing Kennelly is a much-loved poet in Ireland, though his overall place in the Irish poetry canon is somewhat controversial. Some consider "Cromwell" to be a major work, one of the most important Irish poems of the 20th century. Others prefer to think of him, despite his academic standing, as anti-intellectual or lacking in complexity in a period when modernist poetry – from T.S. Eliot to the later works of W.B. Yeats – tended to be esoteric and difficult. Kennelly's poetry can be scabrous, down-to-earth and colloquial. He avoids intellectual pretension and literary posturing, and his attitude to poetic language could be summed up in the title of one of his epic poems, "Poetry my Arse". Language is important in Kennelly's work – in particular the vernacular of the small and isolated communities in North Kerry where he grew up, and of the Dublin streets and pubs where he became both roamer and raconteur for many years. Kennelly's language is also grounded in the Irish-language poetic tradition, oral and written, which can be both satirical and salacious in its approach to human follies. Regarding the oral tradition, Kennelly is a great reciter of verse with tremendous command and the rare ability to recall extended poems by memory, both his own work and others, and recite them on call verbatim. Kennelly has commented on his own use of language: “Poetry is an attempt to cut through the effects of deadening familiarity and repeated, mechanical usage in order to unleash that profound vitality, to reveal that inner sparkle. In the beginning was the Word. In the end will be the Word.... Language is a human miracle always in danger of drowning in a sea of familiarity.” Recognition *1967 - AE Memorial Prize for Poetry *1988 - Critics Special Harvey's Award *1999 - American Ireland Fund Literary Award *2003 - Ireland Fund of France Wild Geese Award *2010 - Irish PEN Award Except where noted, award information courtesy The Poetry Archive.Brendan Kennelly (b. 1936), The Poetry Archive. Web, Feb. 2, 2014. Publications Poetry * Cast a Cold Eye (with Rudi Holzapfel). Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1959. * The Rain, the Moon (with Rudi Holzapfel & Donald Carroll). Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1961. * The Dark About Our Loves (with Rudi Holzapfel). Dublin: John Augustine, 1962. * Green Townlands: Poems (with Rudi Holzapfel). Leeds, UK: University Bibliographical Press, 1963. * Let Fall No Burning Leaf. Dublin: New Square Publications, 1963. * My Dark Fathers. Dublin: New Square Publications, 1964. * Up and at It. Dublin: New Square Publications, 1965. * Collection One: Getting up early. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1966. * Good Souls to Survive: Poems. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1967. * Dream of a Black Fox. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1968. * Selected Poems. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1969; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1972. * Bread. Dublin: Tara Telephone Publications, 1971. * Love Cry. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1972. * Salvation, The Stranger. Dublin: Tara Telephone Publications, 1972. * The Voices: A sequence of poems. Dublin: Gallery Press, 1973. * Shelley in Dublin (1974; **revised, Dublin: Beaver Row Press, 1982. * A Kind of Trust. Dublin: Gallery Press, 1975. * New and Selected Poems. Dublin: Gallery Books, 1976. *''The Boats are Home''. Dublin: Gallery Books, 1980. *''The House that Jack didn't Build''. Dublin: Beaver Row Press, 1982. * Cromwell: A poem. Dublin: Beaver Row Press, 1983; Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1987. * A Time for Voices: Selected poems, 1960–1990. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1990. * The Book of Judas: A poem. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1991. *''Breathing Spaces: Early poems''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1992. * Poetry My Arse: A poem. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1995. * The Man Made of Rain. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1998. * The Singing Tree. Newry, Northern Ireland: Abbey Press, 1998. *''Begin''. . Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1999. * Glimpses. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2001. * The Little Book of Judas. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2002. *''Familiar Strangers: New and selected poems, 1960-2004''. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2004. *''Now''. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2006. *''The January Man & It Takes Trees in Summer''. Bethesda, MD: Wild Apple Press, 2009. * Reservoir Voices. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2009. * The Essential Brendan Kennelly: Selected poems (edited by Terence Brown & Michael Longley). Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2011; Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 2011. Novels * The Crooked Cross. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1963; Boston: Little, Brown, 1963. * The Florentines. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1967. Non-fiction *''Moloney Up and at It'' (literary criticism). Dublin: Mercier Press, 1984. *''Ireland: Past and present''. Dublin: G&M, 1986. Collected editions *''Journey into Joy: Selected prose''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1994. Translated * A Drinking Cup, Poems from the Irish. Dublin: Allen Figgis, 1970. *''A Small Light: Ten songs of O'Connor of Carrigafoyle''. Dublin: Gallery Books, 1976, * Mary, from the Irish of Muireadach Albanach Ó Dálaigh. Dublin: Aisling, 1987. *''Love of Ireland: Poems from the Irish''. Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press, 1989. * Euripides' Medea. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1991. *''Euripides' The Trojan Women: A new version''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1993. *''Sophocles' Antigone: A new version''. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 1996. *''Martial Art''. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2003. *''When Then is Now: Three Greek tragedies'' (Medea, The Trojan Women, & Antigone). Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2006. Edited * The Penguin Book of Irish Verse. Harmondsworth, UK, & Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1970; 2nd edition, London & New York: Penguin, 1981. *''Between Innocence and Peace: Favourite poems of Ireland''. Dublin: Mercier Press, 1993. *''Ireland's Women: Writings past and present'' (edited with Katie Donovan & A. Norman Jeffares). Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994; London: Kyle Cathie, 1994; New York: Norton, 1995. * Dublines (edited with Katie Donovan). Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1996. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Brendan Kennelly, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 2, 2014. Audio / video *''Brendan Kennelly: Reading his poetry'' (cassette). Swarthmore, 1972.. *''The Poetry Quartets'' 4 (by Paul Durcan, Brendan Kennelly, Michael Longley, & Medbh McGuckian; cassette). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: British Council / Bloodaxe, 1999. *''Brendan Kennelly: Reading from his poems'' (CD). London: Poetry Archive, 2005. Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat. See also *List of Irish poets References External links ;Poems *"May the Silence Break" *The Cromwell Poems (excerpts) ;Books *Brendan Kennelly at the Ireland Literature Exchange ;Audio / video *Brendan Kennelly (b.1936) at The Poetry Archive *Brendan Kennelly at YouTube ;About *Brendan Kennelly in the Oxford Companion to Irish Literature *Brendan Kennelly at The Poetry Project *Brendan Kennelly (Ireland 1936) at Poetry International *Brendan Kennelly at Ricorso.net *A Poet's Space: An interview with Brendan Kennelly at Three Monkeys Online *"Brendan Kennelly: Poetry My Arse" - review of Brendan Kelly: Behind the smile at Independent.ie Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:Academics of Trinity College, Dublin Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Dublin Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds Category:Irish dramatists and playwrights Category:Irish editors Category:Irish novelists Category:Irish poets Category:Irish translators Category:People from County Kerry Category:Translators from Irish Category:20th-century Irish novelists Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century Irish writers Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Irish academics